Sometimes our lives are like a puzzle that is put together one piece at a time. We pick a piece up here, we pick a piece of there. We turn them around in different ways until we find a way to put them into the spot that fits and then we go on to the next piece and continue on our way to completing the pattern, the whole puzzle.
The purpose of a puzzle is to complete it, to finish it. Some people even paint glue over them and frame them on the wall, others just smile, take it apart and start over again. Which type of person are you?
The problem with puzzles is that sometimes we get lost looking too deeply at one small part of the puzzle and we lose sight of the larger picture, the whole puzzle that was given to us as a gift on some distant birthday in the past. We find the pretty box in the closet somewhere, we dust it off and decide to sit down and conquer it. Something about the picture calls us... we place the box on the table nearby for reference and yet we often get so lost trying to force a particular piece into a particular spot that we forget to look at the bigger picture.
In the same way that some people love to watch their local radar image in their small little town to see if it will rain, rather than watching the larger state radar view which shows you what might be coming at you down the road.
Do you go wide in life when you look at events or do you narrow in on one particular thing and lose sight of the bigger picture.
Geulah is the bigger picture, Moshiach is larger tapestry that covers the wall and completes our world.
What do you see when you look at the picture above? Words? Colors? Pictures and images; faces on a poster? Angles? Colors? Rhythms and rhymes? Clues to a mystery or a project undertaken on a rainy afternoon? Do you just see the bright golden yellow background or do you see the red and blue on the Hebrew letters and which letter screams out to you the most? A lot to look at there... a lot to think on or maybe just a lot to enjoy.
Art and creativity is like that... it's an expression of the many currents running behind the scenes in the artists mind.
Sometimes I like to play with words and color in a more visual hands on way than writing. Words, colors, angles, images can often tell a story easier than a writer can manage to convey her many thoughts. Sometimes it's just fun to move the pieces around and see the different possibilities. But, in the end if you want to keep it, enjoy it... you must go for the gold and glue it down and wait for it to dry to become a finished product to enjoy forever.
Yesterday there was a class and my friend Basha made the comment that when you compete in the Olympics you compete to win the Gold Medal. How true. A real competitor does not just go to attend, to get a badge saying they were there and maybe, perhaps...who knows they might even come in 3rd place and get a bronze medal. No, a real competitor goes to compete to win the gold.
Gold, silver and copper were all donated to help build various components of the Holy Temple. Bronze was mined In the "the valley of the Jordan the bronze was cast" when the First Temple was built. All the pieces of the puzzle, all the components, the actual physical building blocks were assembled together.
http://www.chabad.org/library/article_cdo/aid/144569/jewish/The-First-Temple.htm
Basha is so right. You go for the gold. You don't just say "it is what it is, we are here and we are working on it" you complete the job, you in your own way can help build the Holy Temple in the same way a person can donate money to help write a Sefer Torah.
You build it with your thoughts, your actions and your deeds. Wisdom, understanding and knowledge are the ingredients that go into the dough ... our actions are the kneading, the mixing and the saying the blessing when we make the challah... to make a comparison. We don't just buy the wheat and the yeast and figure one day we will get around to it ....or all we have are ingredients.
Do you say "Next Year in Jerusalem" on Passover or do you mean it? Do you see it visually in your mind??
Do you contemplate it in a real way or do you figure just saying it and having some patience will make it happen?
Got to tell you....Olympic athletes do not get to the Olympics by repeating "one day I will go to the Olympics" they get there by practicing endlessly and building up their skills and by competing to win their place on the team that will go to the Olympics to win the Gold.
Athletes become one with their sport in the same way that we need to become one with Moshiach. We need to be in this to go for the gold. We need to live Geulah in that same very real way an athlete trains to win a gold medal. In the same way an artist doesn't just think a thought, he physically needs to create and draw down that inspiration into whatever art form he uses to communicate his gift into a very real, finished product. End Game.
This is not about the phrase "Game on" as much as getting to the "End Game" crossing the finish line...not giving up at the end of the race as we are about to cross the finish line.
How do we do that?
We keep the whole picture fresh in our mind. We don't toss out the picture on the puzzle box that we may need later for reference or inspiration. No... we keep it handy, we look at it, we refer to it the same way we learn Torah daily and say Psalms every day.
The Rebbe said once that in a child's room should be a picture of a Tzaddik that the child can relate to inspire the child to grow, along with a Tzedakah box, books of Torah. Our building blocks to rebuild the Temple.
What is the wider picture here?
This is the wider picture.... and the lesson here is that sometimes we get lost in the details. We get lost in the journey or the process and we forget to look at the bigger picture. Sometimes we think we see things, but it's only a small piece of the puzzle. The picture above is only a piece of the puzzle, just one piece.... it's a Tambourine! A musical sort of vision board :)
Remember never to lose site of the prize.
Remember in life to go for the gold.
Remember the bigger picture.
And, the true joy of a tambourine is you can take it with you... like they did in the desert when they left Egypt. They may not have had time for the bread to rise but they had time to grab their tambourines :) And, you can move it around the house with you ... keeping you focused on the prize, the pupose which is to bring about the final Temple, End Game... Moshiach.
I move mine often around the house... I'm in practice and I have never been real patient. A skeptical friend came over the other day and commented on the several tambourines around the house saying, "what is it with you Lubavitchers? Have tambourine --- will travel" I smiled and said, "yes, that IS the idea!"
Do you part today... do an act of goodness and kindness.... go for the golden ring and win the gold medal. And, don't forget to shake your tambourine once in a while!
Don't just open up your eyes but really look beyond the details and see the larger picture.
